Chichewa (a Bantu language of Central Africa, also known as Chewa, Nyanja, or Chinyanja) is the main language spoken in south and central Malawi, and to a lesser extent in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Like most other Bantu languages, it is tonal; that is to say, pitch patterns are an important part of the pronunciation of words. Thus, for example, the word chímanga (high-low-low) 'maize' can be distinguished from chinangwá (low-low-high) 'cassava' not only by its consonants but also by its pitch pattern. These patterns remain constant in whatever context the nouns are used.
Tonal patterns also play an important grammatical role in Chichewa verbs, helping to distinguish one tense from another, and relative clause verbs from main clause verbs. Tones are also used in intonation and phrasing.
Conventionally Chichewa is said to have high tones (H) and low tones (L). However, it has been argued that it is more accurate to think of it as having high-toned syllables versus toneless ones.[1][2]
Not every word has a high tone. Over a third of nouns are toneless and are pronounced with all the syllables on a low pitch. When a noun has a high tone there is usually only one, and it is usually heard on one of the last three syllables. However, some nouns, like nyényezí 'star', have two tones or, like tsábólá 'pepper', a plateau of three high-toned syllables.
Chichewa thus in some respects can be considered to be a pitch-accent language with a 'mixture of accentual and tonal properties'.[3] Some scholars, however, notably Larry Hyman, have argued that the term 'pitch-accent language' is an over-simplification and should be avoided; in his view it is best to consider such languages simply as one variety of tonal languages.[4]
Chichewa is said to have high tones (H) and low tones (L). However, it has been argued that it is more accurate to think of it as having high-toned syllables...
remarkable in that it was the first to mark the tones of the words. Modern monographs on aspects of Chichewa grammar include Mtenje (1986), Kanerva (1990)...
indicated by a low tone on the final syllable (e.g. ssóméró 'it is a school' vs. ssóméro 'is it a school?'). (See Chichewatones and Luganda tones.) A corpus-based...
may have depressor consonants that slightly lower the pitch, but do not have any phonemic effects, as is the case with Chichewatones. Tonogenesis v t e...
Chichewa (also but less commonly known as Chinyanja, Chewa or Nyanja) is the main lingua franca of central and southern Malawi and neighbouring regions...
It is traditionally described as having three tones: high (á), low (à) and falling (â). Rising tones are not found in Luganda, even on long vowels, since...
VH1 LHHH (local bumping with bridging), a form of tone shifting ('bumping') found in Chichewatones This disambiguation page lists articles associated...
are made partly by adding infixes, and partly by suffixes. Unlike Chichewa, tones do not form any part of the distinction between one tense and another...
toned syllable. That phenomenon is common in African languages, such as Chichewa. It has also been argued that the same phenomenon is heard in English sentences...
course of a sentence due to interactions among tones in a tonal language. Downdrift often occurs when the tones in successive syllables are H L H (high, low...
analysis of Chichewa vowel harmony. Lingua 66, 21–52. doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(85)90248-7 Mtenje, Al D. 1987. Tone shift principles in the Chichewa verb: A...
orthography.) In Nsenga, ŵ denotes the labiodental approximant /ʋ/. In Chichewa, ŵ (present for example in the name of the country Malaŵi) used to denote...
varying grammatical environments, with the high tones being manipulated by "tonal rules", and the tones associated with certain syllables being changed...
two tone levels, High (H) and Low (L). Contour tones do occur, and can often be analysed as two or more tones in succession on a single syllable. Tone melodies...
education. The most important local languages include Tsonga, Makhuwa, Sena, Chichewa, and Swahili. Glottolog lists 46 languages spoken in the country, of which...
borrowed from Chichewa. In verbs there is no tonal distinction between one verb-root and another (i.e. no distinction between high and low-toned verbs as in...
South Africa, fused their music with local sounds. The word, 'Kwela', in Chichewa means 'to climb' which is similar to the South African definition, which...
action in question no longer holds. For example, in the Bantu language Chichewa, use of the remote past tense ánáamwalíra "he died" would be surprising...
poems in the Chichewa language). In: Enoch Mvula (ed.) Akoma Akagonera. Popular Publications, Limbe. Mchombo, S. A., & Moto, F. (1981). "Tone and the Theory...
Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Chichewa Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Esperanto Estonian Filipino...
clause, for a result that is not a straightforward question. Context and tone of voice may suggest that the speaker is impressed or incredulous.) Similarly...
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